


Heaven won't take me, Hell won't keep me

by ShadowCr0w



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Brotherhood of Steel (Fallout), Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fluff, Not Beta Read, Polyamory, Swearing, The Railroad (Fallout), some canon elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:34:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25126324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowCr0w/pseuds/ShadowCr0w
Summary: A journey of reflection, doubts, new bonds and old faces that leads to the downfall of the Institute. It starts with Operation Red Glare, the mission that will lead to the downfall of the Institute, the boogeyman of the Commonwealth.
Relationships: Female Sole Survivor/Piper Wright, Glory/Female Sole Survivor, Glory/Female Sole Survivor/Piper Wright
Kudos: 10





	1. The Beginning of the End

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely based on a name Desdemona says when you kill her if you do the Institute or Brotherhood ending. It's all gay, pretty much all self service fanfiic and I have no regrets.
> 
> Also the first half of my nano project! Part two will be delayed since I have to work but please enjoy this! 😄
> 
> (Shoutout to my DA discord server for being the best at getting me to fecking write this!)

Nora, Deacon and Tinker Tom all sat solemnly in the Vertibird, staunchly remembering the losses they sustained when the Brotherhood attacked Railroad HQ. They'd already lost High Rise and his crew to the Institute and they'd deal with the tyrants but right now, the Brotherhood had crossed the line. Not that they hadn't before, but attempting to slaughter them instead of attacking their common enemy? Now all bets were off the table, especially when none of them knew if Glory,  _ Glory _ , the poster child of a liberated synth and their  _ friend,  _ would pull through after she held off an entire squadron of Knights by herself and was suffering from potentially deadly wounds.

"I'll create a distraction, Tom, keep her spooled up for when we get the hell out of here. Piper, Deacon, get the charges set." Nora hopped up, ready to disembark from the Vertibird and raise hell on the Prydwen. She knew what she had to do and she was more than ready to lay down her life so that the bastards below would feel the consequences of their actions. 

No longer would they be allowed to go unchecked, taking and plundering whatever they wanted. No longer would she let them tear families apart, conscripting young children into their ranks and brainwashing them to think what they were doing was good by any stretch of the imagination.

Decon gave her a nervous glance. "Charmer, don't get yourself killed, okay? Glory will be  _ pissed  _ if we let her girlfriend get hurt." He stopped her from leaving the Vertibird, not entirely a wise move in of itself but she understood why he did it.

Nora gave him a wry grin. "Ah, don't worry about me.” she waved her hand flippiantly before a solemn look overtook her face, an eerie calm settling over her before she said, “Heaven won't take me and Hell can't keep me, so you three worry about yourselves. Use the stealthboys, be quick, quiet and get the fuck out of there."

Deacon and Piper watched as she disappeared out of sight and they felt an impending sense of doom, like that was the last time they'd see her. "She'll be fine, right?" Tinker asked them, worrying at the controls and they didn't have a good answer for him, all they had was hope and that felt like it was dimming by the second.

They kept to the shadows, even though the Stealthboys gave them cover, they didn't want to get into the way of what seemed like the entire crew of the Prydwen rushing upstairs where there was a heavy gunfight going on. Normally, they'd worry that meant something bad was happening but if they were still attacking, Nora was still alive, raising hell and the mission was still a go. Not that they weren't concerned about her, they just had to focus and it was easier to focus if they kept telling themselves that their fearless leader was  _ fine _ .

Piper yanked Deacon to press flat against the wall as knights in armor rushed by, from the chatter they heard, they were losing people at an aggressive rate which was good news for them and their objective, not so good for those Brotherhood bastards.

"Danse and Haylen are traitors, they're helping the infiltrator massacre our brothers…." One knight said as his voice drowned out amongst the sounds of the Prydwen's jet engines.

Deacon and Piper shared a disbelieving look, even if they couldn’t see the other, their hesitance was palpable in the air. "Note to self: grab them or Blue will be mad." Piper grimaced, muttering as silently as possible so as to not break her cover by suddenly being noisy, Danse was an honorable man, a bit misguided by the Brotherhood but even he's seen how they've screwed the people they claimed to try and save. Scribe Haylen was a surprise, mostly, it wasn't too big a stretch to believe that she'd follow Danse into hell itself.

They finally got the charges set and scrambled back up top where they had seen Nora fighting still, guarding Tinker Tom and the Vertibird. She had dozens of dead soldiers at her feet, some thrown off the railings of the Prydwen itself. Danse was on the Vertibird, sans power armor and holding a wounded Haylen in his lap. They were impressed by how Nora fiercely protected their escape route and her friends, not that her being a force of nature was weird by any stretch of the imagination, not after all they've been through with her.

Her eyes found them as they loaded up their weapons, they nodded at her, ready to reign hell on their enemies from behind if given the all clear. Their stealth boys had since failed them and had been discarded, useless now and unable to be recovered if their operation was a complete success. The Prydwen would be destroyed and everything left of this chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel would be reduced to shambles of its former glory, something that would benefit the Railroad and the general people of the Commonwealth. Without them in the way, farmers wouldn’t have to worry about their crops being forcefully taken for the “good” of mankind, civilians wouldn’t have to worry about an organized military structure taking advantage of them, an organization that threatened nuclear war for its enemies. 

No matter who they might be and that was something Nora just could not stand for.

Piper and Deacon managed to make it to the Vertibird when the whole ship rocked. Tom prematurely undocked them from the Prydwen, scrambling to try and reconnect it but from the sounds nearby, they didn’t have the time to get Nora out before the bombs would be useless to them. 

“Go!” Nora yelled at them, summoning another wave of strength to hold off the Star-Paladin that was trying to overwhelm her after she used an electro-grenade to fry his armor, rendering it useless and leveling their playing field. 

Piper froze, she couldn’t have heard that right, right? Nora wasn’t really suggesting they blow up the ship with her on it? There was no way they would be able to infiltrate the Institute without her, there was no way that they were going to lose her because they just  _ couldn’t _ . “Blue!” She yelled, standing up on the shaky vertibird, ignoring Deacon’s warning cry as she clutched on the bar right next to the exit. She had to do something, they couldn’t go back to HQ without Nora. They couldn’t lose another agent, another friend, another member of their little family.

Nora threw the Paladin struggling with her overboard, an almost serene smile on her face as she seemed to accept her fate. It struck Piper that maybe this was what Nora had planned all along, this was a suicide run from the moment Desdemona had given them the orders to take out the Brotherhood bastards that hurt them. Had she really given up? Had she really accepted that she was about to sacrifice herself…?

Then, Nora held up the detonator, no longer giving them a choice as they  _ had  _ to get out before those very dangerous bombs ignited the Prydwen’s gas reserves and killed all of them. “Tell Glory I went out like she would have, in a ball of fire.” Time seemed to slow around them, allowing Nora to get her final words out before Tinker Tom veered the Vertibird away from the ship. 

It felt like she’d taken too much Jet, watching Nora fade away just after pressing the red button that triggered a massive rumble through the air as an explosion rippled through the fabric of the Prydwen, sealing its fate. Tom careened the vertibird away as they all watched as the ship went up in flames, their friend, their  _ leader _ , aboard the fiery ball that she set off to save them.

Silence reigned as Tom set the Vertibird down, leaving them to make the long trek back to HQ, wondering what they were going to tell everyone.

\-------------------

Desdemona greeted them first, especially since Deacon told them of Haylen and Danse being there and what they did to people they used to call their own. Dr. Carrington took care of Haylen’s wounds after they easily surrendered their weapons and submitted to a guard in order to keep the peace with a naturally distrustful Railroad. 

Meanwhile, Piper was still numb from watching her best friend go down like  _ that _ . Especially considering that Glory lived, she was asleep, of course, due to the amount of trauma she endured before they left to enact Red Glare. She was having trouble processing any of what just happened, let alone trying to figure out how to tell the synth before her that the human she had fallen in love with was  _ dead. _

That word didn’t sit well with her but it had to be the truth. Nora had survived a lot, losing her son, husband, surviving in the ruins of what used to be her home before she took on the mantle of General for the Minutemen, rebuilding them from scratch and then joining the Railroad to become its best agent and most trusted surface ally while the others stuck to the shadows to sneak synths out of the Commonwealth. She faced down some of the most savage and brutal beasts that the rads could throw at her, she handled the Combat Zone single handedly, Bunker Hill had been retaken without her taking a  _ single _ wound. 

But not even the most godlike of humans could survive something that close range. No, not unless Nora was secretly invincible (which Piper had thought she was for a while) then they were never going to see her again. They wouldn’t even be able to say goodbye or even bury her since she no doubt burned up to a crisp. 

She felt sick. 

Piper ran off, a hand over her mouth and an arm across her stomach so she could throw up away from HQ’s leaders who still hadn’t been told fully of what happened to Nora. They knew that Tom dropped the vertibird, most likely assuming that she went with him to keep him safe and Deacon, Danse and herself hadn’t had the heart to break the news to a joyful Railroad just yet. 

The bubble popped when Tom returned, his hat off of his head, a sign that something had gone irrevocably wrong in the span of a few hours. Desdemona frowned at him, not even acknowledging the fact that Drummer Boy was in his arms in a few seconds. “Where’s Charmer?” She asked hesitantly, looking around as if expecting the woman to appear out of thin air. 

The team couldn’t even look at any of them, all of their gazes staying firmly locked on the ground so as to not finally admit what happened. They knew, logically, that they had to acknowledge it at some point, it was part of grieving and the only way they could carry out their final strike against the Institute. But it hurt, it hurt too much to think about Nora being  _ gone _ , permanently, she always came back, she always had a backup plan and she always, always came out on top. 

Death seemed almost insulting.

“She didn’t make it. She ordered us to leave, Piper was trying to grab her but the Prydwen rocked and the vertibird came loose. She… she had the detonator and set it off, forcing us to pull out.” Danse was finally the one who said something, his brotherhood training of compartmentalization coming in handy as he delivered the news that broke the survivors' fighting spirit. 

The most damning of all was the weak, raspy cry that they could hear from Glory in the dead silence that followed. 

Perhaps that would be all there ever was now, silence and heartache.

\--------------

Nora grunted as she came back into consciousness, attempting to feel out where she was and if she really was still alive. A sharp pain made her gasp, she tried to roll off of her left leg, it hurt but at least it was still there. So, she wasn’t dead after all but she was definitely hurting after that explosion, which she’d take because it was a goddamn miracle that she made it through that. There had been no way to guarantee that her shield would hold, nor any way to make sure all the drugs she took beforehand would actually do anything to help her from feeling the aftereffects of an explosion. 

If she was lucky, she’d get up and find her friends long gone and she could attempt to make it back to HQ or die a dignified death surrounded by the wreckage of the Prydwen. 

“Hey! She’s awake!” An unfamiliar voice broke through Nora’s stupor and interrupted her cataloguing all of her limbs to make sure they were still there after the hell she’d just gone through to further the Railroad’s goal. 

Nora blearily opened her eyes as whatever cart she was in stopped in the middle of the fucking sun, the damn thing blinded her as soon as she was aware of her surroundings. “Hey, here, drink.” Someone helped her hold her head up and helped her to a drink from a can of purified water, the tang of radiation almost comforting now because it meant she was  _ alive. _

Only after drinking and eating an entire can of cram with hardtack did she get a good look at her rescuers. They weren’t raiders that's for sure, their faces too friendly to be any type of menace who would harm her now that she was awake. They also didn’t look like regular city folk or farm folk either, they looked more like the agents she saw back at HQ, the kind of people who’ve seen some shit and could deal with it too. The type of people she tended to surround herself with in her big, damn heroic journey to destroy the Institute.

“Why… Where did you find me?” She asked, nervous that they could secretly be Brotherhood of Steel sympathizers who if they knew who she really was…

“Relax, we found you on the edge of that wreckage. You look mighty roughed up so me and my kid here pulled you out and hightailed it out of there before anyone could stop us.” The older person said, gently administering another stimpak to her battered body. “We aren’t sure about your leg there, it was broken pretty badly but we got it set as good as we could.”

Nora winced as she slowly sat up, strong hands helping her so she didn’t overexert herself before she could actually move without pain. She took full stock of her limbs, noticing all the new bandages that littered her body. Of course, she wouldn’t escape without a few scrapes and bruises but at least she had all her limbs, the fall from the Prydwen… hadn’t been kind on her aching body in the slightest. She moved her leg experimentally and stifled the sharp cry that escaped her lips in return for her slight error in judgement. 

"I told ya it was broken. My name's Sam, this is Julian." They said, ruffling the girl's hair affectionately as Julian stuck her tongue out at Sam. "She's my daughter, who are you?"

Nora frowned, the name sounded familiar but she couldn't figure out where she had heard it before. If one of the Railroad members said it before, then it was unlikely she'd remember it right off because they talked  _ all  _ the time about  _ everything _ . Family was nice, but even before the war Nora's little family didn't have to always talk to fill the silence, but she supposes that filling the silence was better than tensely waiting to be found out again.

"I'm Nora." She finally said, shaking off the thoughts of the Railroad. She was of no use to them with her leg busted as it was and they could more than accurately survive the Institute without her now, plus with the Brotherhood being gone… the bastards wouldn't have any clear idea if they made it out at all. Hell, maybe if rumours got out that Nora didn't survive, it could be used to their advantage, make Shaun… make  _ Father  _ think that he no longer had to worry about her interfering with his plans. Plus, they also benefited from the Prydwen being destroyed, it would hopefully make them complacent, a little lazy perhaps…

Sam grinned at her before peeking around them to make sure they were still relatively safe. "Mighty pleased to meet you, Miss Nora." Their thick southern accent was a balm to a part of Nora's damaged soul that she didn't even know existed in the first place. "We aren't too far from our settlement, it's been about two days since we picked you up so if'ya don't mind hanging with strangers, we'd be happy to help you recover." There was something earnest in their tanned face, the way their eyes squinted due to their smile and the bright sun overhead helped put Nora at ease. 

"I don't mind, I'm no use to anybody though…" she looked mournfully at her injured leg. The last time she had had a broken bone was in college and even then she had the luxury of being able to survive without worrying about the effects of Darwinism kicking in and picking her off. 

Julian decided to pipe up, her own smile bright and happy but it was  _ too  _ familiar that Nora completely missed what she said, instead locked in on a memory from before the Prydwen went down. She remembered that Desdemona rarely smiled, all tired lines and an exhausted soul when Nora got to HQ. Her missions out in the Commonwealth, ruthlessly clearing the path for synths and reclaiming safehouses had put a small spark of life back into the leader, so much so that when Nora set up Mercer safehouse, Desdemona smiled the biggest she had in  _ years  _ if Deacon was to be believed.

And well, normally she didn't trust Deacon on certain matters, she knew he was full of shit and often exaggerated the truth but the way Glory and Dr. Carrington looked at Desdemona in awe, it made her believe him this time. 

Something tightened in her soul when she thought of Glory, she was unsure if her girlfriend had lived through the attack by the brotherhood and she wasn't so sure she would ever find out. Glory was tough, strong and resilient, not just because she was a synth and supposed to be, but because that's who she  _ was. _ She had a wicked sense of humour, one that made Nora laugh even when she never thought she would again after losing Nate like she did. Hell, her late husband and Glory were as different as they come but something about the other woman sparked a fire in her heart that was only stoked by the airs of friendship and the winds of infatuation.

Now the fire may forever be snuffed out.

"Hey." Sam's soft voice pulled her from her ruminating and she staunchly realized that she had started crying while thinking of Glory. "You weren't talking to us, so we figured you needed rest and we're here now. A couple of the farmers are interested in meetin' you when you're ready." 

Nora looked around, unsure of where exactly she was. She knew that she was outside the Commonwealth at least, but what was this place? It wasn't anything  _ like  _ Boston. It was… greener and not from radiation, but from the crops and the actual  _ grass  _ that littered the ground. Were they outside the blast radius from when the bombs dropped? 

No, she frowned, they were still ravaged by radiation, the click of a nearby geiger counter made her believe that. The sign of green glowing bugs occasionally flitted about, quickly shooed off by a farmer weilding a gun or a piece of farming equipment. The bugs weren't as massive as they were nearer to the Glowing Sea, still bigger than she remembered them being from before they weren't nightmarishly huge. 

It was… kind of nice. 

"Howdy there, miss." A man said, his accent not quite as thick as Sam's but his face was just as kind. "I'm Relyan, Sam's brother. They called me over to help you to a bed, I can carry you but I can't guarantee that it'll be pain free." His earnest face was filled with sorrow, like the thought of hurting her genuinely caused him pain. 

It had been so  _ long  _ since Nora met genuine people, good people who didn't know the difference between you or a raider and still went out of their way to help you. Sam stimpak'd her again to help ease the pain as Reylan lifted her up ever so gently and carried her to a nearby house with his sibling and niece following him. Surprisingly enough, it didn't hurt worse than having a sprain but she was sure that was the medicine talking and that she'd be feeling the after effects way later.

Once settled down, she saw a few more children poking their heads in, attempting to get a look at the new person. Nora had a feeling they didn't often get strangers in town, she didn't  _ mind  _ being gawked at, long since used to it in the Commonwealth as most people could spy a Vault Dweller from a mile away. Did they know she was from a vault? If they did, did they even care? 

Why were they being so  _ nice _ ?

Sam came in, a child hanging off their leg and the sight of it making Nora's chest clench painfully. She could have had that, she could have had it with Nate and Shaun or hell, even Glory before she… but no, the war ruined everything in her life. She wasn't allowed to be happy, just live in the ruins of her world as some form of punishment for trying to actually have a meaningful life. 

"Alright, alright." Sam pulled the little boy off, laughing as he giggled from being picked up. "Run along now to your folks. I gotta check up on our guest." They put him back down easily and then nudged him in the direction of his home, the kid happily hurrying off after his interaction with Sam.

"You're good with them." Nora observed, unbothered by Relyan messing with her leg in an effort to get it to set properly as another settler, Julio, she thinks is his name, stitched up the wounds that needed personal attention. 

"Ah, yeah. My late wife and I…" Sam cleared their throat, pain in their eyes as they thought about who they were married to. "We wanted kids but we were both so busy with our work, then I lost her and found Julian." 

Nora felt herself soften, a little piece of her that still grieved Nate came to the surface. "I know what you mean. I lost my husband to a merc, he… he was so happy to be a father." 

She saw something in Sam brighten, as if they were excited to have someone who truly understood their pain. They gave their condolences before handing her another can of water, previously boiled and cooled to help fight the radiation that tainted it. 

Relyan and Julio were done fussing over her and left to let Sam help her change into something a little more comfortable. The two men could be heard talking about how scarred she was and the amount of trauma she had been through in her lifetime. Nora winced, she didn't like people commenting on her ruined body, but it was unfortunately life now in the wastelands. She'd have to get used to it while she was in the care of someone else, or she could snap at the kind people who took her in and risk being thrown out before she could recover with nowhere left to go anymore. 

"You've been through a lot, ain't you?" Sam murmured softly, helping her clean the sweat, grime and soot off of the undamaged parts of her body. "You're from the 'Wealth, everyone there has seen horrors of some kind but you, I got no doubts you were apart somethin' big." They were observant, Nora noted, because not many people would come to a conclusion like that so quick. 

Hell, maybe  _ they  _ were an operative of some sort, it would only make sense as to how they survived picking through the rubble of the Prydwen, then escaped with her in tow, kept her alive and fixed long enough to get her to safety. 

"If only you knew." Nora chuckled darkly, glaring off into the distance as everything she's been through hounds her memory. 

\--------------- 

Piper softly touched Glory's arm, the synth on the bed barely feigning her interest in whatever Piper had to tell her before she flopped her head back to the side. "Hey, come on. Don't be like that, I know how it feels." 

"You don't know shit about this." Glory bit back, her gaze angry and more lively than it had been in the week since the Prydwen's destruction and since the news of Nora's death broke through HQ. 

A grimace broke across Piper's face, she deserved that even if she had only meant to be comforting. "I'm sorry, you're right. I meant that I know it hurts you." Thankfully, Glory's anger fell away and dejected apathy replaced her usually emotion filled face. "I just… Danse and I just got back from sweeping the ruins." 

Glory perked up, hoping for good news on the matter of Nora. 

"We didn't find her body, only signs that scavengers have been there." Piper said as gently as possible, knowing that it was highly likely that Nora had been vaporized due to the heat of the Prydwen's flames. They just couldn't win, could they? First, the Railroad loses too many people at the Switchboard, followed by Nora waltzing in like some sort of saviour for the tired group and they lose Ticon, they lose agents to the Brotherhood. 

They lose  _ Nora _ . Their hope and the one who breathed new life into all of them. Someone who snarked with Doc Carrington, someone who sat in silence with P.A.M, waiting for her runtimes to complete without leaving her entirely alone. For some goddamn reason, Nora felt like it made P.A.M feel less lonely, even if she'd been perfectly fine by herself before Nora got it into her head that the machine wanted company. 

Then again, that had been one of her many quirks and P.A.M never argued.

Piper knew how much Tinker Tom blamed himself for not being able to get her out too. Deacon's sarcasm and sullenness had only increased because he felt like it was  _ his  _ fault for ever entrusting Nora with the detonation switch. She thought they were both trying to reason what happened into some sort of normal mindset, even if their situations were anything but normal. 

The light that had secretly been hiding in Glory died the instant those words came out of her mouth. "Oh."

"It could mean she's alive!" Piper didn't know when  _ she  _ became the one who told lies to comfort people. It went against everything in her to tell someone something that was less than the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but Nora and Glory were her best friends, she would try to be the optimist here, she would do  _ something  _ to keep the broken Railroad from giving up. 

A dark laugh escaped Glory. "Yeah, when did you start lying?" She wouldn't meet Piper's eyes, staring up at the ceiling as if it were the only thing that wouldn't disappoint her. "I finally- I-"

A stifled cry stopped them from talking any further and they both shifted their attention to where Desdemona was at the meeting table. Her hands braced the rough, stoney surface as she grit her teeth in an effort to not break down in front of everyone. Out of all of them, she had lost perhaps the most. She lost her spouse in defense of the Railroad, she's lost the same comrades that they all had, the same synths they couldn't save and Nora, someone she had shared an unlikely bond with due to their unusual circumstances.

Piper sighed. She was seriously overwhelmed by all of this and she knew the emotions/tensions were going to start running high when everyone came back down enough to realise that they still had the Institute to deal with. "I'm… I'm gonna head to Diamond City." She told Glory, gathering up her things morosely because she couldn't stand just  _ waiting  _ here anymore.

She didn't expect a rough hand to grab her arm in a vice grip, fear in dark eyes as Glory begged her not to leave too. Piper actually felt a little warm spark at that, thankful that she was still wanted even after everything had gone to shit. "I need to check on Nat anyways, but I promise I'll be back, okay? Maybe even take a listen to Radio Freedom." Piper reassured Glory who still looked like she was ready to break any second, a vision that was a stark contrast to the big, bad, tough as nails heavy that she'd always been.

Glory still hesitated, her lip wobbled once and a tear slipped down her cheek. "You promise?" Her voice rasped, unsure and insecure like a child who didn't know what the future might hold for them. Not that Piper blamed her at  _ all  _ for this, if it was how Glory wanted to cope, then it was how she would cope.

"Hey, the whole truth and nothing but it, right? I don't lie." She lied then. Piper knew that Nora was likely dead but someone had to have some hope around here. Glory looked like she knew this too but chose to take her at her word and finally released her so Piper could look at her wrist and take stock of the bruises that quickly sprung up. 

She left before Glory could apologize and make it harder for her to stay.

The path through Boston was familiar and she knew the best places to hide in the shadows to avoid any unsavory company that she might come across. She and Nora had spent hours, days, even  _ weeks  _ picking through the commons and its surrounding areas with every intention of making this place safer for caravans and the less fortunate to come through without worrying about being easy targets for the scum that liked to try their hand at a grab for power and loot.

A smile came across her face when she passed near the start of the Freedom Trail and Swan's pond. The behemoth had blocked them from continuing on the path to try and find the Railroad, so it was decided that the best course of action was to put the beast out of his misery and make the Commons just a tad safer for everyone in the long run. It had been a long hour and a half of luring away and firing, hiding and healing, charging and throwing mine after mine, grenade after grenade at Swan until he finally, finally collapsed from his injuries and succumbed to an end where he wouldn't be in pain anymore or have to fend off anyone else who didn't understand the monster that he'd become.

Piper also remembered that they were both so fueled by the adrenaline that they had made out in a dark alley nearby, both sweaty and covered in ichor that definitely wasn't a turn on but they needed to work out some of that aggression that remained within them. It had been fun, it had been hot and messy and  _ perfect  _ to calm them down even if it had been done in public. She would never do that with any of the girls back home but she felt safe and  _ alive  _ with Blue that she could let her guard down long enough to enjoy herself.

Then Blue met Glory and their short lived fling was over but god if Piper didn't understand what attracted Nora to the synth. Hell, given the chance, she'd date both of them and adore them if they weren't so busy being crazy, tragic heavies doing the Railroad's dirty work. 

Her arrival to Diamond City was silent, she didn't want to stir up trouble tonight due to the lingering heartache that stayed with her like a bad case of rad sickness. All she wanted to do was go  _ home _ and hug her sister tightly to her chest, maybe cry a little in the privacy of her own home. 

"Piper!" Nat grinned at seeing her older sister come in, still up even though it was close to midnight. Well, at least it wasn't a school night and she could afford to be up later than normal and she knew by now that Piper would just chalk it up to it being on her to get up on time and go to school. 

Instead of her normal, "hey kiddo", Piper just dropped to her knees and drew her little sister into a tight hug and buried her face into Nat's shoulder. It wasn't right for her to break down like this but god, she couldn't help it. Blue was dead, she had to be and Glory wished she hadn't lived through her injuries and Piper just felt so  _ alone. _

"Piper?" Nat hugged her back, alarm clear in her young voice as she tried to figure out what was wrong with her brave and headstrong big sister that made her seem so  _ small _ .

Piper pulled back, her eyes full of tears as she explained what happened to Nat in the simplest way possible. She hated the rage that showed on her sister's face before it was taken over by sorrow, Nora had been kind to her too, she'd helped her with homework, she'd  _ listened  _ to Nat ramble on varying things with more patience than any adult other than Piper ever had. No wonder she'd mourn the loss of the woman that was her friend too. 

The Wright sisters stayed on the floor, hugging and lamenting the biggest change either of them had experienced in  _ years. _

\----------- 

The sun was shining. 

Not that that was unusual but it was a nice pace from the doom and gloom that had surrounded Jacksonville since Nora's arrival in the town. She morbidly thought it was because of her, mainly due to her gloomy, snappy mood that she'd been in. Nora had put herself into this mess, she knew what she would be sacrificing when she pushed the red button to detonate the bombs attached to the gasbags of the Prydwen in order to let her friends escape and live on without her.

She just never expected to  _ live. _

"Miss Nora!" Julian came up to her, all smiles and shining eyes that reminded Nora of Nat back in Diamond City. 

What did the youngest Wright sister know of her demise? Did she have hope that Piper was wrong and she was alive or did Piper tell her the truth and nothing but? If they all believed that she died, was it right to go home and turn their worlds on its head all over again?

"Miss Noraaaa." Julian flopped down beside her and leaned aggressively into her good side. "I'm bored, pa said to ask you questions but you don't ever answer them!" She pouted and used her big, brown eyes to make Nora putty in her hands.

Her past was tragic enough without sharing it all over again, only Piper, Nick and Dr. Amari ever knew most of the truth and Glory knew… less than her girlfriend should have honestly. If she ever saw Glory again, either here or in the afterlife, then she'd tell her everything she'd ever want to know. 

"Miss Nora?" Julian snuggled further into her side, breaking down the walls that she had put up as if they were made of wet paper. "How old are you?"

Nora laughed. Such an innocent question, something she was asked by another kid  _ years  _ ago when she was visiting an elementary school for their vet program… 

Julian pouted at her though for laughing. "What?" She asked, not understanding what was so funny to Nora.

"No, no, no, I'm not laughing at you. I just wasn't expecting that, at all." Nora explained quickly, finally relaxing enough to wrap her arm around Julian's shoulders and enjoy the young girl's curious mind. "But to answer? I'm a  _ lot _ older than you'll know."

"22?"

" _ Worse. _ " Nora teased. "2 _ 9 _ ." Julian gasped and looked at her with wide eyes. "I'm  _ old. _ "

"I  _ knew  _ it!" The girl giggled maniacally, drawing the attention of a few passersby as they wandered about their business. Nora regressed a little, not wanting to talk to anyone and ruin their lives like she already had with so many people back in the Commonwealth. 

But Sam came over and shooed Julian off inside with their brother, telling her to clean up for dinner so as to not drag rad dust to the kitchen table. "She giving you a hard time?" They asked, sitting down and pulling a little flask out of their shirt. Nora watched them take a hearty swig of the liquid there, make a face at the strength of  _ whatever  _ it was they had before silently passing it to Nora who took her own chug of what had to be moonshine of some sort.

And boy, it was strong as  _ shit _ .

Exactly what she had needed though as she passed the now empty flask back to Sam and sighed a little, the warmth of the alcohol pleasantly tingled her stomach. It had been a  _ while _ since she'd just sat with someone and enjoyed the company, not as carefree as she could have been, there was still danger lurking even though they were relatively safe.

"What do you say? Ready to wash up there, Miss Nora?" Sam asked after sitting beside her in contemplative silence.

Nora agreed, she was hungry and ready to have another distraction from the ones she left behind.

Raylan was a  _ fantastic  _ cook, as was Sam and the two of them had whipped up something that rivaled anything that Nora could have eaten before the bombs fell. It was something akin to a brahmin stew with tatos and whatever mutant strain of potatoes they had out here now, seasoning was scarce but Nora didn't  _ care _ . It was nice to have a good meal for a change without having to worry about it being out of date or poisonous.

The radio crackled a little as Reylan fiddled with it, his brows pinched in concentration. Nora remembered him rambling on about the satellite extenders, hoping to get something new on the air instead of the same old crap that always played. A retort sat on the tip of her tongue, she wanted to tell him about all the cool things that were around before the bombs fell but what good was it anymore? Thinking about the old days and how things  _ used  _ to be did her no good  _ now _ .

A little "a-ha!" interrupted dinner as the ending notes to  _ Atom Bomb Baby _ faded out before Travis's voice filled the room, "Now folks, you might want to sit down and hold onto your loved ones out there because I need to interrupt our show with some heavy, heavy news. Most of you know the Vault Dweller, the General of the Minutemen who goes around the Commonwealth, helping everyone with a smile and asks for nothing in return. Well, I have it just in from Diamond City's very own Piper Wright that she… she died recently during an attack. She gave her life to save her friends and those around her." A shuddery breath marred his smooth commentary while Nora sat still as a frightened radstag in her chair. "A moment of silence, perhaps, for the brave and selfless woman who did so much for us, and for me." 

No one in the house spoke either, all of them shell shocked or frightened as air crackled over the ancient radio. Sam looked at Nora, an indiscernible expression on their face as they appraised her and Nora forced away her fear, meeting their gaze head on and challenged them to say something.

Their silent chess match was broken as Travis finally continued on, "And now, a tribute for our Vault Dweller, her favorite song, a fact she told me herself the last time I saw her walk out the door here in Diamond City. Folks, here's  _ I don't Want to Set the World on Fire  _ by The Ink Spots." The music flipped on and Nora couldn't help the small smile on her face, finally caving in and she let herself think back to all the  _ good  _ she did while in the Commonwealth. 

Helping Travis had been one thing of  _ many _ . So many little side missions, so many recoveries and IOU's given to her, so many settlements that she set up in the name of the Minutemen and the hope she helped bring back to a place ravaged by Raiders and by the damn Institute.

"Ah, shucks, I'm sorry. I didn't think it'd be  _ bad  _ news that I got the radio working." Reylan scratched the back of his neck, a sheepish expression on his face as he worried over making everyone uncomfortable. 

Nora was more than a little amused at that, he sounded exactly like her brother whenever he had someone over and accidentally made a situation even  _ remotely  _ uncomfortable. "No harm, no foul, eh?" Nora shrugged it off but instead of them being appeased by it, they gave her strange looks as if she just spoke something unnatural to them. "Oh… that's… one you don't know." She flushed, afraid that she had given away her hand before she was ready and that they wouldn't let her stay and-

"Ah, no, is that a 'Wealth thing?" Sam asked, despite very likely knowing it was  _ not _ a thing people from the Commonwealth said at all. There had definitely been obvious signs that Nora was a vault dweller, the perfect hair, how she had all of her teeth, how the undamaged portions of her skin were  _ smooth _ and not roughened by a life out in the 'Wealth.

Shit, she was being a terrible guest so she quickly busied herself with her cool bowl of stew and ignored the searching gaze of Sam, trying to piece her together in a whirr of information they no doubt had now.

\-------------

Glory was up and walking now, it was stilted and she definitely wasn't anywhere  _ near  _ ready to be back out in the field but it was progress that everyone was happy to see her up and moving, finally healing, even if it was just physically and not emotionally. Her face was a shadow of grief, outwardly expressing her deepest sorrows that all of them understood  _ why  _ it was there and they didn't try to offer hope or condolences, that wasn't what Glory needed. They did offer support, however quiet it was, letting her know that she wasn't alone despite what she may think now.

The synth moved over to Desdemona, a little wobbly as Piper trailed behind her, hands twitching as if she was waiting for Glory to need her help. It was unlikely that she would, she was too stubborn to ask for help until she wasn't capable of even  _ moving _ , and that's a reason that Piper worried so much. Glory would no doubt work herself into the ground, to death's door  _ again _ , if it meant that someone else got a chance to live and be free of the shackles that kept them down for so long.

Piper was the same way, mostly with her newspaper though. If she could get out information that would allow the people of Diamond City to learn, to  _ grow _ and to care about their fellow man, even just a little more, then she could die one day, content with herself for doing what she was meant to do. She didn't write for herself, she didn't go hunting for a story to bring people  _ pain _ or  _ sorrow _ , she wanted them to know the truth and nothing but the truth. 

Which is what made it so painful for her to falsely hope that Blue was still alive. She wanted to believe it, the fact that they didn't find her body amongst the wreckage of the Prydwen fueled some of that misguided hope but most of it was because Nora wouldn't just  _ die _ before she saw the Institute destroyed. She couldn't have just left them to pick up the pieces and continue on her grand crusade without her, right?

That's what she hoped at least.

"Des." Glory wheezed, sitting in a chair that Piper drew up for her. "What's the word?"

Desdemona looked ragged, her posture betraying the fact that she hadn't been sleeping properly since the attack. "The Paladin is doing good work, clearing out forces that could pose problems to us. Deacon's with him to keep him honest but I honestly don't think it will be a problem. The Scribe is… very helpful. She's been telling us  _ everything _ we could possibly hope to know, including caches of technology that haven't been recovered yet or were stowed away by the senior scribes." She actually looked a little pleased by that, something akin to a smile touching her lips before it was gone with that same tired resolution taking its place. "The Institute hasn't come after us,  _ yet _ ."

There was a shared grimace between Piper and Glory. Yet being the key word here, the Institute would attack them sooner or later and potentially send dozens of coursers after them. They'd recapture the synths in the Railroad, they'd take  _ Glory _ from them and slaughter the rest of them in the name of bettering mankind. 

Desdemona pushed back from the table, pinching the bridge of her nose to stave off an oncoming headache. "Charmer… she had the right idea trusting them. They've been nothing but assets, especially Paladin since he learned he  _ was  _ a synth." 

Glory's face softened a little at that. He must be one of the ones they lost track of once he was "reprogrammed" and being a former member of the Brotherhood, it had to be hard for him to reconcile those two parts of himself. But Danse had been kind to all of them, he wasn't  _ quite  _ a replacement for Nora, only because that he didn't quite inspire them like she did. He did good work, he got his missions done but he was soldier trained and that stuck with him, Danse preferred to follow orders and come home than giving them anymore. 

Piper placed a hand on Glory's shoulder, she didn't pull back when she flinched in response to being touched, she knew it was just something automatic after years of being free and that Glory would relax after a minute. Plus, if she didn't like the touch, she would pull away and Piper wouldn't make a big deal out of her offer being rejected, it's just how they were with each other. Hell, Piper might have been a little in love with Glory too before the Brotherhood attacked them and ruined any chances they had to work something out.

Drummer Boy's unusual baritone floated back to them as he greeted another field agent and told him to report to Des. "I got it, Drummer." The agent said before he passed the runner to greet them at the table.

"Ah, Rain." Des acknowledged him and checked her tiny notepad in front of her. "How was your mission?"

"Package successfully delivered to our contact in Jacksonville, didn't see her face but she promised to take good care of R4." That wasn't unusual for their contacts to be shadow figures, so they weren't exactly worried and Jacksonville was full of synths turned farmers/settlers outside of the Commonwealth. 

Desdemona nodded. "Good work." 

"But… I saw some raiders scoping the place out." He worried suddenly and that put everyone on high alert. "They have good defenses there, most everyone is armed too but I recommend checking back in a few days." 

"You should have started with that! Dammit!" Desdemona smacked the stone underneath her hands in a fit of anger, no doubt bruising herself. She  _ really  _ needed a smoke right about now, something, anything to stave off the panic rising in her chest. As of today, she was bound to be the worst leader the Railroad ever had and it started when she lost Sam several headquarters back, then more and more agents, the Switchboard, they almost lost Bunker Hill if it hadn't been for Charmer… 

"I'm sorry, Des." The agent said, his face clearly betrayed just how sorry he felt. 

Desdemona sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and ignoring the worried looks from her fellow HQ family members. "Get some rest, I'm going personally tomorrow to check on that safehouse." If  _ she  _ was going there, then the situation was worse than any of them could imagine and it was going to lead to a lot of worrying. 

"I want to go." Glory said, even if she knew any argument she'd provide would be shot down in a matter of moments. Mainly because when she stood up, she swayed and had to lean against Piper's soft, strong body to stay upright while her head spun in an unflattering manner. 

Piper wrapped her arm around Glory, holding the synth upright. "You know you can't." Piper told her quietly, pulling her away from the prying eyes of HQ into the corridor behind the main room. Glory fell into her, burying her face into Piper's neck and clutching her tightly, shaking all the while. Her fingers clenched and unclenched at the red jacket in her grasp as she tried to keep it together. The attack and losing Nora had really left her shaken up, that was easy to see.

"I know, I just…"

Piper made Glory look at her. "Hey, I know. Why don't you stay here with me tonight? If it helps, I'll go on the mission in the morning." She thought that telling Glory she'd be her eyes and ears in Jacksonville would help but it actually made the synth  _ cry _ and break in her arms.

"No! Don't you dare leave me too! I'll kick your ass if you die on me." Glory held her close, absolutely terrified despite her little angered outburst. 

Piper couldn't find it in herself to leave, so she stayed with Glory through the night and helped her say goodbye to Deacon, Desdemona and a few unknown agents as they made their way to Jacksonville to check on their synths there from the Commonwealth and their mysterious railroad contact.

\---------

Nora was on the porch again, basking in the cool night air. With her leg finally bare and  _ healed _ , she could enjoy casually moving it without aggravating any wound. It had taken at least a full two weeks for it to heal with rest, stimpaks and minor exercise which was honestly ideal because the last time that she had broken a limb, she was out of work for two damn months and during that time she got pregnant thanks to Nate’s brilliant idea of going to the park to lift her spirits.

A little wet laugh escaped her. The thought of him didn’t hurt as much as it used to, most of her grief dealt with in those first two months outside Vault 111 before she fully joined up with the Railroad, a courser chip in hand and Piper by her side. She wonders what Nate would have thought of the world after the war, how he’d romanticize how everyone continued on and found new ways to survive the fallout. 

“I know that look.” Sam found her again, sitting beside and sharing another flask of good whiskey with her. “You’re thinking of someone.”

“Yeah, my… my late husband.” She admitted out loud, taking a swig of the burning alcohol and looking up at the stars. The very same stars that she would look at with him on those long nights they spent together while she was massively pregnant, telling Shaun about formations he’d never get to learn or memorize because he’d been taken from them too damn soon. He was a monster now, thanks to the Institute indoctrinating him from the moment he had conscious thought. Nate would be horrified to think of what their son had gone through, of what  _ she’d _ gone through since waking up from cryo. 

He’d also be so happy to know that she was living and still loving as fiercely as she always had even if he wasn’t around any longer. The man had a heart of gold and only wanted what was best for her, even if the plan didn’t include him now.

“I’m sorry.” Sam murmured, their hand touching the back of hers lightly in their way to express it. “I can sympathize, I lost my wife a few years ago to those Institute bastards.” 

Nora grimaced. That was the same of many people she found out, many of them abducted or collateral for standing in the way of “the future of humanity”, which was a load of shit if you asked her. “My husband was shot by a merc, he was… he was trying to keep him from taking our son.”

“Christ.” A sharp intake of breath from beside her alerted her that that might not have been what Sam was expecting to tell them of her backstory. “Nora-”

“I’m from a Vault. Vault 111 outside Sanctuary Hills near Concord.” Nora didn’t let them continue, she needed to get this off her chest, she wanted Sam to know that she wasn’t a threat. That she could be trusted so that the people would stop worrying about her, so that the  _ synths _ here didn’t have to worry that she was a spy. “We were in cryo stasis, before the war. I woke up, I saw Kellogg take my son,  _ kill  _ my husband and I escaped after to find just how much the world outside had gone to shit. I vowed that I’d get my revenge, I’d find Shaun and… survive in this damn wasteland.” She growled, taking another shot of the whiskey and causing a little bit of alarm within her companion. 

Was she finally losing it? She’d kept in together long enough to rebuild the Minutemen, to give other people hope, to join the Railroad and infiltrate the Institute to find Shaun only to see that he was not someone she wanted to call her son any longer. It hurt, everything hurt so bad, why? Why did she keep  _ losing _ ? 

When did she get to win?

“Hey, hey, come here.” Nora broke down, she buried her face into Sam’s chest, thankful that she could finally let herself feel every loss that she had taken in the past year as she searched for her son only to be met with disappointment after disappointment. 

It was nice to let her guard down.

A screech disrupted them and gunfire was heard at the entrance to the town. “Shit!” Sam startled, hauling Nora to her feet, being less than careful with her in their effort to get her to safety because at this point, they still thought she was a helpless vaultie who didn’t know how to handle herself. “Get inside! The others will be bringing their kids here, hide!” They shoved her in as Reylan rushed downstairs clad in improvised metal armor and pipe weapons in his hands. 

Nora watched in shock as the siblings ran off and others dropped off their kids quickly, the children running to a hatch that had been hidden under a sofa until Reylan shoved it out of the way and pushed Julian down the ladder. She couldn’t… she wouldn’t just hide down there and hope no one found them, she would- she had to do something!

The first dying scream solidified it for her. 

Once the last kid was hidden, she threw the hatch closed, locked it up and recovered it with the couch and ran outside. For good measure, she grabbed an emergency backpack that she  _ knew _ contained stimpaks and spare ammo should she need it, she’d probably need it because as soon as she threw open the front door…

It was a warzone. 

The settlers were hidden around strategic areas, fighting with all their might against the wave of raiders that had descended upon them when they thought everyone would be asleep. They were wrong of course, Jacksonville was one of the most fortified settlements that Nora had ever seen outside of her own of Sanctuary. The night guard no doubt held off as many as they could or tried to warn them before the raiders started firing into the town. 

Nora ducked down as a raider turned on her, firing his pistol at her in four short bursts. She timed it to when he was reloading before charging him to wrap an arm around his thick neck, using all of her strength to crush his windpipe as quickly as she could. Once he was disposed of, she scooped up his weapon and took all the ammo from his pack, reloaded it and crouched over to one of the settlers.

She had a gun wound to her arm, leaking white fluid instead of bright red blood. She was a synth, just as Nora had suspected and it confirmed her suspicion that Jacksonville was under Railroad protection. A fact that pleased her greatly. 

“You okay?” Nora asked over the gun volley, startling the poor woman. 

“Yeah, wasn’t hit too bad.” was the short reply as she popped up and killed a Raider with a shot to the gut. “Aren’t… Aren’t you supposed to be hiding?” She asked, worried now that she got a good look at who was hiding with her. 

Nora grinned a little. “Tired of hiding. I got the kids locked down, need to find Sam and Reylan.”

The synth woman nodded, a determined look on her face. “They went nearer to the gates, the gunfire’s heavier there, we’re getting the random stragglers further in but they’ll be holding off the main horde.” She leaned out again to scope the area and picked off another raider who tried sneaking past them.

She had her mission then. She'd get up to the gates and fend off these damn bastards with her life if she had to. Nora had already been too lucky once, when Sam found her and helped her recover after the mess with the Prydwen so it was time to pay back their hospitality by killing every damn lowlife son of a bitch that wanted to mess with someplace that was under their protection. 

Nora wished her companion luck, made sure that she was stocked on ammo and stimpaks before making a run for it. Her leg only complained a little due to being weakened from disuse but now wasn’t the time to worry about a weak limb, she had to push through and get to the siblings at the gate. If she could help turn the tide, then she would.

She found both of them, Reylan on the ground and clutching his side with Sam kneeling down next to him to try and staunch the bleeding. “Fuck, you should have stayed in cover!” Sam’s thick accent was worse due to the panic they were feeling as Reylan continued to bleed out in front of them. “Shit, shit! Does  _ anyone _ have a damn stimpak?” Their voice cried out in terror at the thought of losing their brother to a wound that they couldn’t heal by themself.

Nora dropped next to them, Sam’s wild eyes on hers and Reylan’s sluggish movements reassuring her that she made the right move in grabbing the emergency kit and rushing after them. If there was one thing she learned about the siblings, it was that they both had a bit of a hotheaded style of going into things and that one of them was bound to get killed because of it.

Just not today.

She quickly injected a stimpak into Reylan’s thigh between the metal of his armor and grinned as he gasped from the rush of medicine, the wound in his side slowly stitching itself back together under watchful eyes. 

Then, she prowled away, keeping to cover except to pop up and fire at the raiders. She’d faced odds worse than this before, she’d take every bastard out by herself if she had to. Nora shot, she pistol whipped some of them when they got overconfident and tried to corner her. She choked out another raider, keeping her against her body as she used her as a human shield in order to take our four in a row. 

Once she was dead, Nora took her pipe shotgun and worked her way forward, unafraid of being hit as the raiders were panicking and getting sloppier as more raider bodies dropped. It felt good to be back into the thick of things, scaring people into submitting or running away, protecting her people and keeping everything standing even though the raiders tried to change that.

The last one was a bit harder, he was more armored than the rest of them due to wearing fucking power armor. Nora didn’t have hers, she left it back at HQ to make the trip to secure the Vertibird atop the Cambridge Police Station easier and stealthier. Not that that really mattered as everything went to hell in a handbasket the moment her and her Railroad buddies set foot on the premises.

But it did remind her that she knew the disadvantages of power armour like the back of her hand. She knew how to get into its blindspot with ease, running circles around the Raider Captain as he berated her and tried to shoot her. His bullets whirred past her, her game was to get him to have to stop and reload so she could pounce with a discarded pocket knife and stab him in the weak spot between the torso piece and his helmet. It’d go through the seal enough to be a big problem for him and he’d be distracted so she could plug a few rounds into the fusion core on the back of his armour. That would set it into overdrive and he’d have to get out quick or risk being fried alive by an overheated metal suit.

She leapt on him, stabbed the knife right where she wanted to and heard his guttural screaming even through the armor as she hopped down. He did exactly as she anticipated, clumsily tried to pull the knife out with his metal gauntlets and Nora lined up her shotgun with his fusion core. 

A deep breath. She held it and…

_ Bang! _

The scattershot hit dead on its target, immediately sounding alarms in the suit as the captain started scrambling to get out without getting killed from either the knife or the fact that his armor was rapidly approaching a mini nuclear meltdown. 

He got out, turning on her to try and get his last remarks in but Nora gunned him down. The shotgun at close range did exactly what it was supposed to do and caused an irreparable amount of damage to his body, killing him instantly and effectively stopping the botched raid on Jacksonville. 

Nora grinned as he went down, lowering her shotgun so she could go check on Sam and Reylan. 

Once back over to them, they were gawking up at her after not having moved away from their cover. They no doubt had a good vantage point of the massive amount of destruction she caused and how she decimated an enemy that had an advantage until she showed up to use that against him. “How… I have never seen anything like that.” Sam breathed out, awe on their face as they looked up at her through blonde eyelashes. 

Nora shrugged. “I thought you figured me out by now. I’m not just a soft, pre-war vaultie, Sam. I’m the General of the Minutemen. I’m an agent of the Railroad, as are the two of you. I had you pegged from the moment I saw the synth farmers” 

Reylan and Sam exchanged glances before Nora put the shotgun down to help Reylan get off the ground. The two of them didn’t seem to know what to say as the synth woman from earlier came running up to the three of them with the widest grin that Nora had ever seen on anyone. “A few minor wounds, no crops ruined, all the children are safe thanks to Miss Nora!” The excitement from her was clear as she rattled off a status report for the leaders of the settlement. 

“I don’t think we’ve ever had that much success turning away a group of Raiders… I-” Sam was still shocked, even as Reylan promised to be back with another update as soon as he got a look at things himself. They wondered for a moment if they should let him go off so soon after being shot but his wound was gone thanks to Nora’s responsiveness and then her distraction that allowed him to recover. 

“Sam, tell me the truth. Who are  _ you _ ?” Nora asked. There were things about them that didn’t make sense, even after she had it figured out that they were Railroad. Who were they to the secret organization? Why were they hiding and why had the first time that she met them been when they had dragged her from the burning ruins of the Boston Airport?

Sam just sighed. “Shit, I guess I can tell you after all. I’d been fighting with Rey about it, worrying if pulling someone from a Brotherhood ship had been a good idea. But after what you did for us? Hell if I’m going to keep anything from you.” They laughed, scraping a hand across their tired face and squinted blearily at Nora. “Just, can I tell you after we make sure everything’s secure?”

Now  _ that _ was something Nora could get behind and she agreed to it, even following them to help secure Jacksonville and its inhabitants.

\-----------------------

Nora and Sam sat on the steps again, the town safe and the bodies burning away as a warning sign to any other raiders just outside the walls of Jacksonville. It had taken hours of cleanup and even longer it felt like to reassure everyone that they were all safe, not a single soul lost that night. Sam, Reylan and Dagna (the synth woman) all bragged about her abilities and how she kept them all safe from danger, turning the adoring settlers on her instead as they all thanked her and cried over having her there.

“So.” 

“So.” Nora continued, thankful for being able to rest, truly rest now. 

“I owe you some answers but so do you.”

“I’ll answer them too.” She owed them that much for their hospitality and she felt comfortable being able to talk to them now without the fear of oversharing anything. 

“So, uh, I’m still Sam but… I came into Jacksonville the same way you did, dying and trying to hang on but the difference is that I grew up here. It’s where I met my wife who was with my brother, she… fuck, Des helped me heal and get back on my feet. Her dedication to the Railroad is what drew me in, I joined as Silence and it was great! I fell in love, I got  _ married _ for fucks sake, I felt like I was on top of the world until…” Their voice was thick, not just from their accent but from the pure, raw emotion that disrupted their words as Nora sat beside them in silent shock. “There was a fuck up, the Institute found us, they flushed us out from under a Slocum Joe’s and I-I saw her go down but I couldn’t, fuck, I wasn’t fast enough and I  _ ran. _ ” 

“Sam-”

“You don’t get it!” They roared. “I left her! I ran away from Des and I left her there to die! She’s dead because of me!” Hot tears poured down their face as they relived the thought of their wife dying in front of them because they ran instead of staying and trying to save her, risking the chance that they’d get shot by gen 1 and gen 2 synths. 

Nora wasn’t going to let them think that. “Sam! Shut the fuck up and listen to me!” She roughly grabbed their arms and made them look at her. “Desdemona is  _ alive _ ! I thought your name sounded familiar, it’s because she told me that  _ you _ were dead!”

The shocked joy on their face made Nora believe she made the right choice in shutting them up. “Des…?” They asked, looking up at her in disbelief. “I-I, she’s?”

“Alive, Sam. She’s leading the Railroad from HQ back in the Commonwealth. I weaseled some information out of Doc Carrington when I was, ah, getting to know everyone and he told me she almost didn’t make it but since the chromedome thought she was dead, they left her and she was able to be recovered. So, like I said, she’s alive. If it’s the Desdemona with red hair, a motherly aura about her and smokes when she’s stressed you’re talking about.” Nora was sure she was right, the similarities were too obvious, hell, escaping from a Slocum Joe’s didn’t happen often, if ever and the story about the gen 1’s and 2’s? 

Yeah, they had to be Desdemona’s Sam that she had heard about  _ once _ . 

Sam started crying, sobbing really as they hugged Nora this time, small murmurs of how they couldn’t believe that Des was alive. “I have to get to her, oh, my poor darling…”

Nora understood that, but it was far too late to try and make that journey to the Commonwealth without rest, hell, without any type of rations to make the two day trek back to HQ. She had honestly been waiting for the Railroad to show up here after that runner left but perhaps something happened? Could it be the Institute? Brotherhood resistance keeping them from finding out where she went? 

She didn’t know if  _ she  _ was strong enough to go back, not when Glory wouldn’t be there to greet her with her dark lips in a bright grin, a perfect contradiction that made Nora’s heart throb painfully. But… she owed it to Sam, to Desdemona now to reunite them and give them their happy ending. 

“Not tonight Sam, it’s been long enough. I think after some rest and some preparation, then we’ll head back?” 

Sam tried to protest but Reylan came out to drag them both to their respective sleeping quarters and scolded them both for staying up so late after the attack they faced. Nora wanted to argue that they had good reason to be up but she was sure that didn’t matter to the tall man as he wrangled her into her sleeping bag, threatening to knock her out with his special sleeping time drink mix. 

Not sure she was that brave to risk it, she settled down for the night, a small warm feeling spreading through her chest at the thought of succeeding today the way they did. Nora hoped tomorrow would bring some amount of achievement too, maybe less gunfire and more packing that would take them back to a place she didn’t know if she was ready to go back to yet.

But that could all wait until the morning, she decided firmly and rolled over to go to sleep. 

  
  


It took several days of preparation; it turns out, to get everything settled back down enough for the two of them to be able to comfortably leave Jacksonville and go try to find out where the Railroad was holed up. Nora had said her goodbyes to many people, likely she’d never see them again and got a surprise kiss on her cheek from Dagna as a thanks for saving her and inspiring her to continue fighting. She just smiled shyly at the woman, accepting it and holding back her tears because she wasn’t ready to move on from Glory, not yet, not anytime soon she thinks.

Sam had taken time with Reylan and Julian, telling them that she was off to find Desdemona and then she’d be back for them. Julian was nervous, unsure if the woman that was supposed to be her mother would like her at all but Sam had done their very best to reassure her that when they came back, Desdemona would absolutely fall in love with her. 

“Yeah, who wouldn’t, huh kiddo?” Reylan ruffled Julian’s short hair and got a disgruntled noise from the kid. 

Nora wished she could introduce Nat and Julian, but the Commonwealth or Jacksonville wasn’t ready for those two girls to be in cahoots with each other. No one’s secrets would be safe anymore, and they’d go around asking every question under the sun in order to ferret out whatever juicy gossip they could. Plus, Piper might just cry at seeing Nat make another friend, this time one who would get all of her little quirks and be just  _ perfect _ for her.

“You ready?” She asked Sam instead of lingering on the what ifs. 

A serene smile stretched across their face, the first truly, genuinely happy one that Nora had seen from them since they met back at the Airport. “Oh yes, I can’t wait to see Des again, I just… hope she still wants  _ me. _ ” They wrung their hands nervously together, their expression dropping into an uncertain one.

“Sam, you’re hard to forget but the only way to find out is to stop being a goddamn chicken and let’s go.” That seemed to work for them and they bid their final goodbyes to the group that had gathered to see them off before they turned and walked out the very gates they had protected a few nights before. 

\-----------------

It was night when they got to the Old North Church, the building still damaged from when the Brotherhood stormed the place in an effort to wipe out the Railroad and prevent them from helping synths any longer. Jokes on them, the organization had Nora on their side then and Glory at the time, the two of them slaughtering more of their knights than anything else they could have thrown at them. 

But the thought of Glory not being here… didn’t sit right with her. That beautiful face had been one of the first ones she’d seen when she and Piper figured out the riddle and let themselves inside, both of them unsure of what to expect but certainly not a pistol and a minigun locked on them while Desdemona stood aloof and indifferent in the center of the trio.

It certainly was a power move that had stuck with her ever since it happened.

Sam was nervous as they crept through the catacombs, unsure if ferals remained behind or if the Railroad would even be there to greet them. The two of them really hoped that everyone was still there but it’d been three weeks since the attack by the Brotherhood, three weeks and no word to Jacksonville on the establishment of a new safehouse after the breach of this one. There was a good chance that the Railroad chose to play its cards and take the chance that the Institute wouldn’t believe they lived after such an attack but it was hard to say for certain until they actually got past the decoder ring and looked inside.

Nora input the password, the feeling almost familiar despite the fact that a whole new companion stood at her side. 

\---------------

“Des!” Drummer Boy ran up to the leader, panic lacing his voice. “Someone’s outside, we haven’t gotten notifications that someone was following the trail, they’re trying to get in.”

Piper grabbed her pistol while Glory got her minigun, the two of them flanking Desdemona as the leader stormed towards the church entrance. They would fight off whoever was dumb enough to try their hand at getting inside and if they  _ did _ get inside, then it wouldn’t be a problem for much longer at all. 

The three women stood there, tense and unsure of whoever was at the door to their hideout, the unknown didn’t feel good and they should definitely be scrambling to run instead of standing here and hoping whoever was out there was smart enough to run instead of pursuing them. Were they making the right choice? Waiting here like radstags hoping that a feral hound would pass them by and not make them supper that night?

Only one way to know.

\-------------

“You’re horrible at this.” Sam murmured as Nora had to start over for a third time on the decoder ring. 

“Shut up! It’s been a while since I had to do this.” She growled back at Sam and managed to get it right this time, standing back as the door slid open. This made it real, they were both about to step inside and see what had become of the family they both left behind in order to heal. For Sam, it meant seeing Desdemona again and for Nora, it meant finding out what happened to Glory and hell, Piper held her heart too but she was sure her chances at that were long gone. Sam hadn’t abandoned Desdemona but Nora had abandoned Piper, her best friend and someone that, with Glory, she had had a little something going on with. 

The lights were off, exactly like Nora had seen the first time she crossed the threshold here. They would probably be waiting in the dark, ready to shoot if they proved unfriendly. 

Nora was going to announce herself as she usually did, with a bang. So, she stepped forward and threw her hands up, getting a bewildered look from Sam as the lights cut on and she said, “Well, shit, I don’t have a courser chip this time, I hope y’all won’t shoot?” She looked up with a sheepish smile that quickly turned into a shocked gasp as Glory stood before her,  _ alive _ and quickly chucking her minigun aside to rush down the steps to greet her.

They collided in a tight hug, neither one of them sure who’s tears were who's and where the other’s body ended and theirs began. Nora knew she was shaking and laughing wetly but was Glory? Did Glory miss her as much as Nora missed her too? 

She got her answer when Glory pulled back and then drew her back in for a desperate kiss, an action that was meant to make sure that the other was real, not really for romance but to reassure oneself that they were  _ there _ and that this wasn’t a dream after all. 

“You’re alive.” Nora breathed a sigh of relief as Glory chuckled a little, repeating the sentiment and kissing her again, and again, and again. Each time cemented it in her mind that the last time she had seen Glory was never going to be the last memory she had of her love. 

“Me? You!” Glory’s voice was that same dark rasp that Nora had fallen in love with many months ago and that little feral grin was exactly the same, minus the new little scar that marred her cheek. A knife blade, she observed absentmindedly and stroked over the knotted skin gently, committing it to memory and vowing to kiss it for the rest of the life she was allowed with her. 

Piper stood a little ways away, gawking at both of them, her bottle glass green eyes wide and filled with tears of her own as she barely breathed. The two women she pined for,  _ both _ alive and here and in each other’s arms as they forgot about her now that they were back together. Well, maybe not because Nora looked at her and leaned in to whisper in Glory’s ear something that pulled a dirty giggle from the synth and an excited nod. 

Nora came over to her, barely breathing out a greeting before cupping Piper’s face and kissing her with every ounce of passion she welcomed Glory with. It set her soul on fire, something that she secretly wanted from the moment that Nora arrived in Diamond City and helped her fib her way back inside her home. The taste of Nora’s lips was everything she ever dreamed of and all the things that Piper didn’t think she could have without disrupting a very happy relationship.

They pulled apart, Piper trying to catch her breath as she felt starry eyed over the passionate kiss that her favorite Blue had given her. She didn’t even know what Glory thought of the whole thing, Nora was  _ her _ girlfriend after all and someone who had quite literally come back from the dead all over again. But, Glory sauntered over, sliding her hands over Piper’s hips and pulling her impossibly close, she softly asked if it was okay to kiss her, a direct contradiction to Nora’s fire and proceeded when Piper consented her approval. 

After, the three of them stood there, hugging and crying as they were all together again, something they never thought would happen after… But that didn’t matter any longer, they were all home with each other and in each other’s arms they were safe from the forces that would keep them apart otherwise. 

“Fuck, wait.” Nora pulled back and looked up to where Desdemona was pointedly not looking at them, a little red in her face as she was waiting for them to be done with…  _ that _ . “Des, I’m happy to see you.”

“Not as happy as you are to see them, I see.” A little teasing smile crossed her blushing facade as she finally made eye contact with Nora. “I’m happy you’re back, Charmer.”

“Well, not just me. I have a gift of sorts for you?” Nora looked back to the shadows behind them, Sam having stayed hidden back there no doubt due to their anxiety of being back with the Railroad, with Desdemona. “They might be too much of a coward though!” She called out and knew she won when a little affronted gasp was her answer.

Sam stepped out into the light, their eyes locked onto Desdemona’s for the first time in over a year. A year of the other thinking they were dead at the hands of the biggest enemy that the Railroad had. A  _ year _ since they touched or held hands or did anything that they always did before the Switchboard incident happened and tore them apart from each other.

Desdemona ran towards Sam, pushing past the three women who’d occupied too much space between her and her once dead spouse. She hesitated in front of them, her hand reaching up to slowly touch their rugged face as if she didn’t quite believe that it was them at first. There was no way that the universe was being  _ kind _ to her, was it? Giving her back her best agent and a friend along with the most amazing person ever that she had had the wonderful chance to fall in love with over a decade ago?

“Dezzy…” Sam whispered, their eyes locked on Desdemona’s and they nuzzled into her outstretched palm, relishing in the touch of her long lost wife. 

“Sam?” It really was them, it was the same voice that used to greet her and wake her up every morning. The same voice that encouraged her to take charge of the Railroad, to become the leader that it sorely needed after their last one had been killed. The voice that used to whisper soft love affirmations in her ear when they were supposed to be focusing on more important things but whittled down her resolve until she was nothing but a young woman in love for the first time. Sam, the strong, handsome person who made her feel like that again just by being here in front of her.

She couldn’t take it anymore and dragged them by the back of their neck into a bruising kiss, letting herself cry and be vulnerable while she reconnected with them. Sam relaxed into her, wrapping strong arms around her waist and dragging her up into them as they forgot that they had an audience like their audience had forgotten about them mere moments before. 

Nothing else mattered but their lover, everything else could wait just a few more minutes.

\------------------

If Nora thought her return meant cause for celebration, then she severely underestimated the ruckus the Railroad would create at seeing Sam walk through that door with Desdemona on their arm. Deacon had barrelled straight into both of them, hugging both Nora and Sam with an exuberant shout of, “I knew you had to be alive!” before being smacked away by Glory who demanded that he give them some space. 

Doc Carrington was extremely pleased to see Sam again, welcoming them back as sincerely as the smarmy bastard could. Tinker Tom, of course, attached himself to Nora and sobbed in relief that she was safe and alive after he thought he failed her at the Prydwen. 

Honestly, once everyone seemed to drift to Sam, Nora was more than happy to make her escape to the tunnels and camp out at the workbench just to get a moment alone. It was nice being back, downright lovely even but it was overwhelming going from complete silence to a bustling room full of people she now considered her family. Logically, she knew they were thrilled to have her back but she was still worried that her being home would be a bad omen for them. 

She thought about what it took to get this far. How she found them by following the Freedom Trail, reminiscing to Piper about the actual landmarks that littered it and how they viciously fought together to clear mutants, ferals and other wasteland creatures from their path. Nora was sure that was part of the reason the Railroad was okay with them joining as they were, other than taking out a courser and freeing a synth to boot, they took down Swan in a final flourish before setting upon the red path from the Commons to Faneuil Hall and then to the Old North Church.

Desdemona, Glory and Drummer Boy, all people she loved dearly now had looked up Piper and her with such suspicion that it would have been insulting if Nora didn’t understand the stakes that were in it for them to keep secret. The Institute had found them, driven them out and tried to break their spirit but they kept going until Nora found them and she liked to think that her own will helped respark their fire to win. Hard to say some days, mainly from Carrington, but the Railroad was overall in a much better mood than when she joined on. 

A little smile crossed her tired face as she heard Travis on the radio, excitedly sharing rumours that a certain vault dweller was back, seemingly risen from the dead to be their salvation through the dark times that had befallen their beloved Commonwealth. He said it was from an unreliable source but if she was out there, to stop by and visit her old friend in the booth before he switched to another favorite song of hers. 

The sweet chords of  _ Atom Bomb Baby  _ were too much for her to resist and she started humming along with the lyrics, a happy little noise that was foreign to her. The last time she sang or partook in any sort of music was the night before the bombs fell and she had sung Shaun to sleep with Nate standing at the threshold, a sleepy smile on his handsome face as he watched the two of them. Funnily enough, the memory didn’t cause an aching pain in her chest anymore, it left a small twinge sure but all she felt was a warm love fill her heart. 

Nate would be happy for her, he would. He’d love how she was moving on and learning to live as a whole new woman in a world that only seemed to want her downfall. He’d love how she continually said  _ no _ to injustice and stood up for what was right, even if it was the hard choice to make at the time but would be the better option in the long run. 

Hell, forget what Nate would think, Nora was proud of herself that despite everything, she was still here, she was still standing and she’d  _ win _ against the Institute at all costs. 

Such as she was caught up in her thoughts, she missed the sounds of footsteps approaching her until arms wrapped around her neck and a sultry voice said, “Hey babe” and silken lips kissed her cheek. Piper’s hand touched her bicep and she placed a shy kiss on her other cheek, still unsure if she fit into the fold with them but there was no place else that Nora wanted her to be. 

“Hey doll.” Piper finally said and Nora relaxed into Glory’s strong front. She was home,  _ this _ was home with them beside her. Her girls, finally all three of them together after so much had tried to drive them apart. “You ran off, you okay?”

Honestly, she was never better. There were still things that she had to do, enemies that needed to be taught a lesson and settlements that will always need the General of the Minutemen to protect them. She would get to that later though, right now she was exactly where she needed to be, with Glory and Piper close by, her family down the escape tunnel partying about the fact that two of their own were home at long last. 

“You know there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” Nora finally said, craning her head up so she could kiss Glory, her girlfriend’s arms tightened around her shoulders as they briefly lost themselves in the sensation. Once they stopped, Nora leaned forward to pull Piper into a sweet kiss of her own, happy with the way more stress melted from the woman’s shoulders until she was warm and pliable in her hands. Glory didn’t let go of her, even as Nora placed her own hands on Piper’s hips, enjoying the softness she felt there despite the hardiness the wasteland built into its people nowadays. 

A loud bang disrupted their soft, quiet kissing as Deacon’s voice drifted over to them. “Don’t worry, I can’t see a thing!” Which meant that he had his hand over his shades and was far away from them that he really couldn’t see whatever they were getting up to. “Des is calling a meeting! All Railroad agents to attend, Glory, Seeker and Charmer are  _ mandatory,  _ so get your asses down there!” Was what he said before disappearing with an excited laugh trailing off into the damp escape tunnel. 

Glory and Piper pulled away, leading the way forward dutifully before they turned back to see Nora still sitting on the stool and watching them walk away with a silly grin on her face. They both reach back towards her, each offering a hand, hands that have only led her into new adventures and a better future each time. Piper asked, “You coming, dollface?” 

“Yeah, don’t be such a slowpoke, Charmer.” 

That was all she needed to get off her ass, take their hands before she said, “Darlings, heaven won’t take me and hell wouldn’t keep me away from you two.” And they disappeared back down to HQ, ready to plan for their assault on the Institute.

Together, as it always should have been.


	2. The Beginning of the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back with the Railroad, the three women find time to talk while in the middle of ramping up their plans to take the Institute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a lot longer than expected, I fell into the rabbit hole of Dragon Age. 
> 
> Now a three part fic!
> 
> (Chapter's probably a little wonky but such is life.)

The trio made their way to the planning table, little pleased grins on their faces as they saw how Desdemona leaned into Sam, her eyes closed while she enjoyed their embrace in the safety of their hideout. 

Well, relative safety. Now that Nora was back, they were no doubt going to ramp up their plans of infiltrating and assaulting the Institute. Being both an agent of the Railroad and the General of the Minutemen meant that Nora had a  _ lot  _ of sway over the sheer number of forces they'd have to attack when they were ready to go. She was glad she'd spent so much time caring for the militia, spent so much time in training and building settlements from the ground up so as to  _ have  _ something like this. 

"Everyone's here." They heard Sam whisper to Desdemona, keeping their arm around her waist even as she straightened up into the same leade most of them had always known. The difference now was there was a genuine fire in her eyes, a subtle gleam that could have easily been missed if it weren't the fact that she was in front of people who were her family now. 

"Alright." Desdemona said, placing her hands in their standard spot on the table. "Thanks to Charmer, we took out our biggest enemy between us and the Institute. Paladin, Scribe, Glory and Seeker have been giving the pockets of soldiers left absolute hell, making it easier for us to breathe and regroup."

"Would have given 'em  _ more _ if I wasn't such a pussy." Glory joked and got smacked for her comment by Piper. She grinned at the other woman, laying on the charm to ease her fake ire and it worked exactly as she hoped it would. Piper rolled her eyes at her and relaxed back into her side, ready to rejoin the meeting.

Desdemona sighed before she continued, "So going in via the relay is out of the question, I don't want to even attempt another try after we almost fried Charmer the  _ last  _ time."

"Sorry boss." Nora grinned. She knew she had a bad habit of making everyone think she was dead but honestly, when you're the unwitting hero in a time not your own, what else are you supposed to do? Really, she tried to stay alive and keep going but some days, only some days, she was so tired that she just had to rest for a minute. 

Maybe not  _ dead  _ rest, but a certain amount of rest nevertheless. 

Another aggravated sigh came from their leader but a soft hand on the small of her back melted it right away. Nora had never seen Sam and Desdemona interact in meetings like this, but she immediately noticed how Sam was a calm anchor that soothed the rocking ship that was Desdemona. 

Okay, so maybe she wasn't good with metaphors but she couldn't be perfect, now could she?

Tinker Tom came rushing over from his computer, a pile of schematics in his arms as he shoved Carrington and P.A.M aside to throw them across the war table. "Hey-!" Was someone's indignant shout as they were thrown into another agent but it didn't dissuade Tom from frantically setting up his blueprints.

Nora shared a look with Piper, the only other one who was probably as lost as she was as to what Tom was doing but Piper just winked at her. She quickly focused back on something else, ignoring the flush creeping up the back of her neck in favour of avoiding being heckled by her girls. 

"The way  _ I _ see it-" Tom said, slapping his hand down on a schematic of C.I.T before the war. "The answer to our tiny, tiny problem, lies here." 

Nora pursed her lips. She remembered that she had a lot of free time on her hands when she was pregnant and she had been so bored one day that she busted out old schematics of different buildings around Boston and Cambridge in an attempt to alleviate that boredom as best she could. Hell, if she remembers right, the university had been one of them at the time and she'd spent  _ hours _ pouring over it and marking at the paper with what she'd do differently than the original contractors. 

Most of it was silly design things, Nate used to laugh at some of her ideas before contributing even sillier ones when she pouted at him. However, some of them were more serious, things she'd do differently with load bearing walls, power lines, sewage…

She stiffened as if a bolt of lightening struck her.  _ Sewage. _ They had to be getting water in and out  _ somehow _ … 

It wouldn't be the most glamourous entrances, but the leaders before her time were notorious for their dirty tactics and she had learned many of them in school growing up. There was the possibility that the pipes were small but if there was something she  _ knew _ , it was architecture and Nora was banking on the sewers running by the old Robotics room which her brother used to complain about all the time. 

It felt too convenient. There was no way those assholes were so confident in their security that they'd overlook a major flaw that would allow them to be blindsided, right?

"I can't read all too well." Tinker's voice interrupted the war that was being waged inside of her head. " _ But _ I was hoping Agent Charmer here could apply a little old world razzle dazzle." He looked at her with a hopeful grin, the rest of the Railroad following suit.

Desdemona sighed again. "Tinker, I don't think we got  _ that _ lucky that she can read old plans." She pinched the bridge of her nose before turning towards Nora. "Can you?"

Nora fidgeted a little, a shy smile on her lips as Desdemona's skeptic look turned to one of disbelief. "Well, you tend to have a lot of time on your hands when you're pregnant…" she mumbled and went up to the table, shuffling through the schematics while Glory cackled in the background.

"What did I  _ tell  _ you, Des? We hit the jackpot!" Deacon was being annoying again with his overeager boasting of the woman  _ he  _ sponsored into the Railroad. 

"Deacon." 

"Des." 

Nora rolled her eyes again, momentarily fearing she may lose them permanently because of his shenanigans. If they'd stop bickering for  _ five  _ minutes, then she could actually find the blueprint she was looking for. It had been awfully easy to find these but she apparently underestimated just how stupid the Institute was in covering all their tracks when they left the surface, their coursers having failed at destroying everything that could be used against them. First it had been the code defender password, after the fact that some scavver from the surface could figure out their molecular relay and now the plans… 

Maybe some higher power believed that they'd gotten out of hand and decided that the good guys needed to win.

"Ah ha!" Nora found the specific schematic she was looking for, no matter how easy it was to get a hold of it, she was glad that something was going right for once. "It'd be…" she hummed to herself, looking at the area that turned into the Robotics section of C.I.T when it upgraded. "Okay, so here's where the 'eggheads' worked and there was a maintenance hatch…" she pointed it out but held her hand back to Piper, motioning for the marker she always had with her. Nora took the marker from her girlfriend (?) and circled it on the blueprint, then she drew a line from it and did her best to scribble a path towards the access hatch to the bay. 

"It means irradiated water, potential ferals… Synths, guards, it's  _ extremely _ dangerous." Drummer Boy was the one who pointed out the obvious. It wasn't a surprise that he was nervous about this whole suicide mission, he was before Red Glare was launched, but Nora survived that and she even brought back an essential member of the Railroad. 

Nora chuckled. "And? Red Glare was dangerous. The Switchboard was dangerous. Going to the Institute was dangerous. I think we've established that I'm pretty fucking tough, so I'll lead a small team through the tunnels and we can make a straight shot to the Relay." 

"Where you'll beam us in with Minutemen as backup." Desdemona, honest-to-god,  _ grinned _ at the entire idea. "This could work. It'll take some prep and recon but we could take the Institute." 

An excited murmur circulated the interior room. The plan could work, it was potentially a suicide mission but taking down the Institute would be the best cause to give their lives to. Most of the agents in the room would follow Nora into hell itself because she would make it worthwhile, she proved that she could get the job done and she wouldn’t let them fail even if it cost more than some thought it would.

“That is all then. We’ll update you as we gather ourselves for our strike against the Institute.” Desdemona dismissed everyone and most of them went off with adrenaline pumping through their veins. This was one of the biggest missions they’d taken on and the fact that it could  _ work _ was more than enough to motivate all of them. 

Glory and Piper squished Nora between them. Not only were they going to assault the Institute, they still had to work through the new stages of their relationship. Sure, kissing was nice and all, but neither of them knew exactly how this would work but they wanted to make it work, they just needed to know where their big, brave girl stood on the situation. They’d grown closer personally when Nora was away, recovering but they had known it was too soon to make any sort of move as they’d been grieving Nora at the time.

Now they knew she was alive and she adored them back? 

Nora wanted to talk to them, she wanted to clear up their relationship and make sure things were going to work between them other than just a few kisses. Thing was, she was going to be busy as  _ fuck _ preparing for the upcoming assault so she wasn’t even sure if there was time to do that. She had to go to the Castle and hail Radio Freedom, try to discreetly call all available militia members for a more confidential briefing on backing the Railroad… not to mention the fact that she had to convince that synths were a worthy people to save and that she knew that this was the best course of action.

The general people of the Commonwealth weren’t dumb, she knew that logically, but thanks to earlier unrest about the Institute and the propaganda that all synths were heartless killers, set out to rip families apart didn’t help in the slightest other than fuel their fear. Piper had sent out articles of her own creation, using her status as a reporter to instill a general fear of synths as body snatching doubles and it still made ripples throughout the surrounding area. No matter that she’s since rescinded her stance, no matter that she now plays an advocate for synths who didn’t ask to be created, didn’t ask to be made the way they are but still bore the consequences of man playing god.

It was funny, really. The same men who bombed her world in a mad grab for power found new ways to try to control everything, only through the use of synthetics that they thought they could control. When did AI research ever go right? If they wanted to create something human, then they should have thought of the ramifications and the fact that most humans in general wanted free will and the power to make their own decisions. 

She’d been so consumed by her thoughts that she didn’t even notice that she automatically allowed herself to be pulled away by Piper and Glory. The two of them wrestled her away from prying eyes and listening ears to the relative safety of upstairs where they wouldn't be bothered by the general populace. 

“So.” Piper nudged her arm with her shoulder. “You look like you could use a pickmeup.” She passed over a sweet roll wrapped up to keep it from staining the inside of her pockets. 

“Where do you keep all this?” Nora seriously wondered because Piper always had a treat or two on her but hell if she was arguing because it benefitted her to have a companion who usually had some form of snack on her person. She tore into the sweet roll, a little happy sigh escaping her. It was no cinnamon roll or any other kind of sweet from before the bombs but she’d be damned if it didn’t hit the spot.

"Ah come on babe, you know a reporter never gives up her secrets." Glory took the words right out of Piper's mouth, winking at her in response.

Nora snorted. 

"Though…" Piper frowned, a contemplative look on her face as she glanced between the two of them. They knew what was coming, they really should talk about the thing between the three of them while they had a little time to breathe. 

"Yeah. I know." 

"Why would people like you two want someone like me?" Was the question out of Piper's mouth, not wholly unexpected as they knew she had difficulty believing that people liked her for  _ her _ . Hell, one of the trademarks of Nora and Piper’s early conversations were of how Piper still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that someone wanted her help, that they actually  _ liked  _ talking to her now. 

And the thing was, Nora did. She genuinely adored Piper for her ramblings, for her desperate need to seek the truth and to tell it. It was refreshing to have someone so genuine in a wasteland full of liars, plus she was pretty damn cute too so that helped a lot. 

Glory was brash, rough and tumble in comparison even if Piper could fight dirty too. They had their differences, sure, Glory being a synth and Piper a human who originally vilified them until she  _ learned _ . It was wonderful to watch Piper grow and change her mindset, even trying to use her platform to convince others of it too. 

"I  _ like  _ you because you're you." Nora finally said, offering the other half of her sweet roll to Glory who had been eyeing it for five minutes now. "You once told me that you trusted me explicitly, right? Well, trust me when I say that I really do admire you for who you are. You don't have to be flawless, you're perfect as  _ you _ are, perfect for me."

"And me!" Glory said through the last few bites of the roll. Nora rolled her eyes at her girlfriend,  _ their _ girlfriend hopefully if Piper was game for dating both of them at once. 

"Elegant, isn't she?" Nora poked the synth in the side, getting an undignified squeak from Glory as she batted at the offending hand that poked her. A wicked grin spread on Nora's lips as she wriggled her fingers into the soft expanse of flesh that elicited such a reaction from her and got a full on shriek this time. 

"Blue, don't torture her." Piper interrupted them before they could break out into an all out war. A cute little shy smile played on her lips as she glanced between the two of them with a pretty blush on her face.

Glory cleared her throat, threw a glare at Nora before she continued. "I know I didn't say much but, um, when I thought Nora wasn't coming back… I didn't think I could go on living. You were there. For  _ me _ . Because I'm me, you know?" She sounded nervous, the whole feelings thing wasn't her forte unless she was royally pissed off or in the mood for something a bit more mature so to speak. "I kind of like you for you, plus you have a  _ fantastic voice  _ and an even better ass."

They knew her methods of deflection by now but still, the compliments made Piper's face burn hotter under the attentions of the two women before her. She went to say something until a distinctive voice interrupted them. "Everything alright? We heard a scream." Deacon asked, craning his neck to see them in their almost hidden spot on the balcony. 

"Yeah, just saw a spider." Nora quickly covered for Glory, knowing how much it would embarrass her if it got out that she was ticklish. 

"Oh  _ god _ , did you kill it?" Deacon sounded disgusted and frightened all at once, his face a picture perfect scowl. He cautiously looked around, almost afraid to know if there was an irradiated spider hiding around somewhere. 

"Duh, I killed it obviously." Glory quickly picked up on the lie, putting on a fake bravado that pulled a giggle from Piper. She reached around Nora to smack at her and got pinched in return for her transgression. 

"Excuse y'all, I am  _ sandwiched here." _ Nora smacked at both of them and got a wheeze from Deacon as he told them he was going to leave them to…  _ whatever _ it was they were up to. From the way he said that, he clearly expected they were in some sort of weird foreplay.

Well, maybe he wasn't  _ wrong _ per se but it wasn't for sex, just them cementing the fact they were girlfriends now.

(Revisit this section in editing)

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Nora took Piper with her to go see Preston as Glory was needed to round up Railroad agents to prepare for the assault on the Institute. It was a massive task, something that  _ needed  _ to be done but still rather daunting to look at as it could take at least a week of racing against the clock, and a veritable synth army, to get their resources together enough to be prepared for an attack of this nature. They'd need the Minutemen allied with them, the common people of the 'Wealth who would fight against the ones who only wanted to use them for experiments and to control them.

Them, plus the Railroad heavies and general fighters, as well as Nora and her select crew… it sounded like they had an  _ army _ in the making. She didn't know how to lead an army, her friends were big helps as far as getting her this far but she couldn't inspire other people, not a whole bunch of them. 

God, why did she agree to being the General of the Minutemen again? It seemed so simple at first, when it was just Preston and her but  _ no _ , apparently settlers and the common people flocked to the Castle to join once word spread about them defeating a Mirelurk Queen under the guidance of a  _ competent  _ general.

"Hey, Blue, why the long face?" Piper asked as they walked through the Boston Commons, she elbowed Nora while holding the souped up shotgun that had been a present from Tinker Tom. 

Nora sighed. "I'm… really stressed." 

"I'll bet, going into the Institute the first time was hard enough. You didn't say much about it." Her voice was gentle, trying to convey that she didn't expect any answers for that, just that she noticed. Honestly, Piper just  _ noticing _ was enough to warm Nora's heart. 

In hindsight, she didn't talk about it at all. She just left there, a sick feeling in her stomach as she saw the man her son had turned into was someone she wanted  _ nothing _ to do with. Nora went back to the Railroad, a new fire in her soul as she plotted how'd they would do a mass jailbreak as it were for the synths who remained and wanted  _ freedom, _ no longer was her focus on the past and on Shaun, but on what she could do to better the future for those the Institute had ruined.

So no, she didn't say much. 

"It's… complicated." There was a long pause between the two of them as Nora thought. She wanted to tell Piper, who of all people would understand the history of what she went through from start to now to get revenge for her late husband and her missing not-so-baby boy. 

"That's okay, take your time-" 

"I found Shaun." She interrupted the other woman, finally summoning the courage to speak. "He wasn't what I- he wasn't my son, not anymore." 

"Blue…"

"He was  _ old _ . It'd been… it'd been a lot longer than I thought it had been. He wasn't the man I wanted him to be and he certainly was corrupted." Nora quietly said, fiddling with her weapon and sighed sadly. "I left there, feeling  _ sick _ . They brainwashed him and he's dying now, cancer." 

"I'm-"

"He's delusional now, when he banished me from the Institute… I told him that he made a mistake. I told him that his father and I were disappointed in him, I don't know if that mattered to him because he never knew us but-"

" _ Nora _ ." Piper stepped in front of her, saying her actual name in a firm tone that immediately shut her up. Her hands connected with Nora's shoulders, stopping her from moving forward any further and Piper steered her into a nearby alleyway to get out of sight so she could take a breather.

She did feel better after talking about it, Piper was really good at listening and absorbing information so it made sense. Nora didn't think she'd ever be 100% okay with it, but the path to healing wasn't pretty if she's remembering her pre-war therapist's words correctly. But who knows? Maybe she'll finally heal once the Institute is gone, maybe not. All she knew was that she had two women who have killed and would kill again for her, she had a new family to focus on and she could start moving forward.


End file.
